Just Deserts

Thursday, April 30, 2009

After 20 months of happy employment at Embarcadero, I resigned last week from my position as Program Manager for Java and SQL Developer products to pursue a new job opportunity. May 8 is my last day.

My tenure at Embarcadero was action-packed. Product deliverables every six months, travel to interesting destinations and working on cool technology with some of the best and brightest.

All good things come to an end though.

The New Job

On May 25, I start a new job as a project manager at Infusion Development, a position that is a complete 180 in several aspects:

I am relocating to Dubai.

Consulting. No products.

No Eclipse. All about Microsoft.

Of course, the main mandate continues to be to manage large distributed development teams and deliver quality software on time and on budget. That is what I do (and do well ;).

From Toronto to Dubai

I have always wanted to work in the middle east, given the right opportunity. I am originally from the region, speak the language and do enjoy the larger-than-life things that Dubai has to offer.

If it all goes well, the plan is to relocate to Dubai by the end of summer. My place of residence is yet to be decided, but I am thinking I will get an apartment in one of these buildings:

From Eclipse to .Net

The fact that my new job has nothing to do with Eclipse had drawn interesting reactions from my Eclispe-loving circle of friends. Reactions ranged from a simple "wtf?" to Nick Boldt's more eloquent "But Eclipse has been good to you, and you have been good for Eclipse."

That is certainly true. Eclipse is a great technology, the Eclipse community is passionate and being an Eclipse committer has been an honor. But after 10 years, maybe the time has come for Eclipse and I to start seeing other people ;)

Just Deserts

To chronicle my new life in Dubai, my blog will need a new name. After much deliberation and research, I came up with a clever name: "Just Deserts."

You see it's clever because it's like "Just Desserts" (the famous dessert restaurant chain), but with one less S. Get it? :)

Onward and Upward

Thank you, Embarcadero. Thank you, Eclipse.Here's to the next chapter and the Dubai adventure...

Sunday, January 11, 2009

The recent acquisition of CodeGear by Embarcadero has opened up a lot of exciting opportunities. Recently, I took on the role of the Program Manager for Java and SQL Developer products, a part I was born to play ;)

We have many new efforts underway. Perish the thought, maybe 2009 will finally bring a powerful and easy-to-use Eclipse-based Java profiler.

The Model of a Model is a Model

In an attempt to buy my love and to convince me that modeling is good for me, the EMF team has offered me a complimentary copy of the 2nd edition of the EMF book.

They explore topics ranging from how "everything is a model" to how "a model is a model is a model", and they bring it home with a chapter that explores how "the model of a model is a model." I am looking forward to it.

For the third edition, I think it would be interesting and effective to structure the book as a collection of essays and to tell the EMF story in the first person from the point of view of a model.

Like that's not enough, I then got a generous invitation from Jacek Laskowski, leader of the Warsaw Java User Group, to attend their all-day extravaganza.

Then on a dare to set a record for attending the most demo camps in a single month, I decided to organize the first-ever demo camp in my adopted home city of Iasi, Romania.

I am not aware of companies, other than Embarcadero, that are building Eclipse-based products in Iasi. However, there is a strong Eclipse presence as a Java IDE in Iasi universities and companies. The last time we hosted an Eclipse-centric event, it was attended by 100 people (a full house) on a rainy Saturday morning. So that's a good sign.

3 Simple Rules

I have six dining room chairs in my house, so I have no experience organizing events for more than 5 people. But, who better to advise me on how to organize a demo camp than the Eclipse Foundation's Marketing Events Manager/Genius Lynn Gayowski?

Here are Lynn's simple rules on how to organize a successful demo camp:

Create an organizing committee made up of four reliable, happening people who can carry stuff and have good planning skills.

At least one person on the committee must have a car.

Wear comfortable shoes.

The Committee on Eclipse DemoCamps Affairs

So we sent the committee on a faux-planning session, where they were supposed to look busy in a photo-op against a leafy backdrop.

The event is hosted by the Eclipse Enthusiasts of Poznań. In addition to being grad students and IBM employees, these busy guys author one of the more entertaining and informative blogs on Eclipse, teach Eclipse summer school and contribute code to the Eclipse platform. In short, I want to be like them when I grow up.

At that event, I plan to demo the latest and greatest in the world of database IDE development. Also, if there is sufficient interest, I may show home movies from my boyhood trip to Michigan :)

Sunday, September 07, 2008

During my recent Lost in Spain™ vacation, I visited Mallorca, Spain's largest Balearic island. Mallorca is home to tennis royalty (Rafael Nadal), Hollywood royalty (Michael Douglas and his young wife) and the summer home to Spain's royal family.

Mallorca is also the home to an old friend Emil, a mechatronic engineer living in the beautiful city of Palma. When I walked into his office, I expected to see a desk covered with electronic equipment, but I was certainly surprised to see an Eclipse application running on his monitor.

Eclipse and Mechatronics

So how is Eclipse used in Mechatronics on a Spanish island? Let's break it down.

Emil is developing a rich client application that communicates via CAN-bus with a range of electronic sensor/actuator control devices using a USB-CAN adapter.

With this application, he can monitor the states/errors, remote-control actuators and change the setting of each installed device. He can also send, read and verify the firmwares of all devices. The number of the control devices can reach 8000 in one installation.

Living La Vida Loca

It was very cool to see Eclipse being used on a daily basis in mechatronics. However, as soon as I realized that I was discussing Eclipse on my vacation, I stormed out of his office and enjoyed a street dance :)

Saturday, August 16, 2008

I will be presenting a keynote at the conference in November and I am thrilled. No holds barred. Nothing off limits. It is going to be both fun AND informative.

The First 60 Seconds

I will start my talk with the usual

"I am so happy to be in Münich... The last time I was in Münich was ... blah blah."You can't go wrong with this intro. Everyone does this bit, including one of my favorites Tim Bray.

Astonishing Tales

Then, I dive right into telling astonishing tales of building commercial software on top of Open Source frameworks.

To give you an idea of how astonishing my tales are, here is a picture taken at EclipseCon 2008 of me telling stories to (from left to right) Ben Pasero (the smartest twenty-something guy I know who does not work at Google - yet), Bernd Kolb, and Martin Aeschlimann (JDT/UI lead and my bestest Swiss friend).

These three guys look mesmerized and I am hoping my talk will have this effect on the 800+ attendees at the conference.

What makes a good keynote?

To me, the best keynotes are ones that meet one or more of the following criteria:1. they make you laugh2. they make you cry3. they make you think

If you have a story about commercial development around Eclipse that meets at least one of the criteria above, I would love to hear it. Please send an email to wassim dot melhem at gmail dot com.

About Me

I work as a Project Manager at Infusion Development.
Prior to that, I was the Program Manager for Java and SQL Developer Products at Embarcadero Technologies for a hundred years.
I started my career at IBM where I led the Eclipse Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) for a thousand years.
I hold a BMath in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and a BSc in Genetics from the University of Alberta.